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{
    "id": 622820,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/622820/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 241,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Eng.) Gumbo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 24,
        "legal_name": "Nicholas Gumbo",
        "slug": "nicholas-gumbo"
    },
    "content": "Controller of Budget shall ensure prudent and efficient use of public funds. Even stopping at that point, there is a concern. It appears that most of us, especially in the counties, have still not quite understood the essence of devolution. A lot of Kenyans have yet to come to terms with the idea that the intent of devolution is to ensure responsible use of public resources in so far as providing services to the people of Kenya is concerned. I emphasise this point of ensuring prudent and efficient use of funds because as a Kenyan, I am very concerned. Devolution has changed the landscape of Kenya, but we must also not be blind. This idea of saying that this has been achieved while we turn a blind eye to what has not been achieved is where we get it wrong. Who says that, as a country, we cannot be an ideal model of governance in this region and the whole continent? We come from the counties. One of the reasons why there was such a clamour for devolution was that without a doubt, there are parts of this country -we have spoken about it on the Floor of the House - which have been marginalised for decades. There cannot be any possible reason why Wajir County had to wait for 50 years to get its first metre of tarmac. Perhaps, one of the reasons we went in the direction we did was because of the highly acclaimed Sessional Paper No.5 of 1965, which was one of the most divisive instruments of governance that this country has ever published. The Sessional Paper No.5 divided Kenya into two sections, namely, the so- called high potential and the low potential areas, where it is said, as a blueprint, that the resources of the country will be directed. It is as if the Sessional Paper was, in effect, saying that some parts of Kenya are occupied by Kenyans who are lesser people than the rest of the country. The fact that we embraced devolution is realisation enough that the Sessional Paper was a misstep and we should not have gone that way. Every human being and every Kenyan living in this country has a right and is entitled to decent living. I do not think there is any Kenyan whom we can say it is alright for them to live in an inferior way or superior way. Every Kenyan has as much right to live in this country as other Kenyans. The essence of devolution is to ensure that all these things that have been elusive for most Kenyans for a long time are now within the control of the localities in all the parts of the country. This ensures that we are more or less reaching an ideal where we share the “cake” as equitably as possible. As you know, equity is nothing, but an instrument of trying to achieve equality."
}